MORE INFO:   http://supportbowebergdahl.blogspot.com POW bracelets available - Gulf War gold


BERGDAHL,  BOWE R.

Name: Bowe R. Bergdahl
Branch/Rank:  Army/Pfc
Unit: 
1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 
25th Infantry Division, Fort Richardson, Alaska.

MOS: 

Date of Birth/Age:  23
Home City of Record:  Hailey, Idaho
Date of Loss:
June 30, 2009 (previously announced by the Army as July 2, 2009)
Country of Loss: Afghanistan
Original Status:
Duty Status Whereabouts Unknown (DUSTWUN).  
Current Status:  D
eclared missing-captured on July 3, 2009
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground


Oth
ers in Incident:

Source: Compiled by P.O.W. NETWORK from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews. July 2009  with information from family.
 

National Alliance of Families
For the Return of America’s Missing Servicemen
World War II – Korea – Cold War – Vietnam – Gulf Wars -- Afghanistan

Dolores Alfond --- 425-881-1499
Lynn O’Shea ------ 718-846-4350

Web Site -- www.nationalalliance.org
Email ------ lynn@nationalalliance.org

July 31, 2010                                      Bits N Pieces                         

Leaked Documents Provide Details of Bergdahl Capture – On July 28th, the Associated Press reported:

[Begin Article] “Leaked military documents on the war in Afghanistan appear to provide details of the U.S. Army's search for an Idaho soldier captured last year by the Taliban.  Bowe Bergdahl, from Hailey, has been a captive since June 30, 2009.

Documents posted on whistleblower group WikiLeaks' website include intercepted radio transmissions after Bergdahl went missing from his base in southern Afghanistan — as well as details about talks two days later with village elders about a possible prisoner swap.

In the documents, Afghan tribal leaders assured U.S. officials that Bergdahl was alive and unharmed.  Col. Tim Marsano, an Idaho National Guard spokesman, declined to comment on still-classified military documents. Marsano has alerted Bergdahl's family in Idaho about media reports about the leaked documents.” [End Article]

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For The Record – We oppose the leaking of documents during ongoing military operations that could endanger American service members.   However, we welcome any leaks, or release of documentation involving POW and MIA records over 25 years old.   There is absolutely no reason information 25 years or older should remain classified.


http://www.stripes.com/blogs/stripes-central/stripes-central-1.8040/one-year-later-still-no-answers-on-missing-soldier-1.109309

One year later, still no answers on missing soldier



By Leo Shane III
Published: June 30, 2010
 
This video frame grab from the Taliban propaganda video released Dec. 25, 2009 purportedly shows Spc. Bowe Bergdahl.
Associated Press

ISAF officials today marked the one-year anniversary of the disappearance of Spc. Bowe Bergdahl, declared missing after he didn't show up for a unit roll call last summer. By mid-July commanders knew where he was; a Taliban propaganda video showed the young soldier in their captivity.

Bergdahl, a member of the 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment, is the only known U.S. servicemember currently being held by enemy fighters. Taliban commanders released two more videos featuring the soldier from Idaho in December 2009 and April 2010, demanding the release of prisoners at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in exchange for his freedom.

But since then no news has surfaced about the soldier or his condition.

Army officials and Taliban statements have offered conflicting reports about how he was captured. Fellow soldiers said he simply walked off his base in Paktika province, but Taliban spokesmen claim he was captured after he fell behind while on patrol.

Today ISAF spokesman Rear Adm. Greg Smith said freeing Bergdahl has been a top priority since his disappearance. ?We continue our efforts to determine his whereabouts and ensure his safe return. Our thoughts and prayers are with Bowe and his family.? Ceremonies were also scheduled today in his hometown to honor his service and push for his safe return home.
http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/4254274

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/captured-us-soldier-bring-home/story?id=10314693&nwltr=blotter_featureMore

Captured US Soldier: 'Bring Me Home!'

New Taliban Video Shows Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, Captured Nine Months Ago

Date: Wed, 07 Apr 2010 21:19:28 -0400
Subject: POW Bowe Bergdahl

Taliban releases video of captured US soldier

By LOLITA C. BALDOR and PAULINE JELINEK (AP)
 

WASHINGTON — The Taliban have released a video of a man identified as an American soldier captured in Afghanistan last June, showing him pleading for his release and return home.

In the video, Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl says he wants to go home and says the war in Afghanistan is not worth the number of lives that have been lost or wasted in prison.

The seven-minute video of Bergdahl shows him sporting a beard and doing a few push-ups to demonstrate he's in good physical condition. There was no way to verify when the footage was taken. Pentagon officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Militants threaten to execute U.S. soldier

By Sandra Jontz, Stars and Stripes

European edition, Saturday, February 6, 2010

Militants in Afghanistan have threatened to execute the American soldier they’ve held since June if the United States does not release the Pakistani scientist convicted this week of attempted murder, according to Arab news outlets.

The Afghan Taliban threatened to execute Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl if the U.S. does not release Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani woman convicted Wednesday by a New York federal jury of two counts of attempted murder against U.S. soldiers in

Afghanistan , according to online reports coming out of Peshawar by PakTribune and Karachi News.

Bergdahl, 23, with 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, based at Fort Richardson , Alaska , disappeared June 30. His disappearance set off an intense, weeks long manhunt that canceled or diverted other military missions and resources to search for him in southeast Afghanistan and along the border with Pakistan .

Officials suspect militants might be holding Bergdahl in Pakistan .  Accounts of his capture little more than seven months ago differ. When he first disappeared, military officials said he walked away from his base in Paktika province. In a video released by the Taliban in July, Bergdahl said he was captured after he fell behind while on patrol.

A U.S. military official in Kabul said Friday that the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan was unaware of the militants’ demand, and he referred all questions to the Pentagon.

PakTribune quoted a militant commander, who claims to be involved in the abduction, as saying that Bergdahl admitted to participating in several raids in Afghanistan , and “[s]ince he has confessed to all charges against him, our Islamic court had announced death sentence for him,” the news outlet quoted the Taliban leader.

The Taliban have released two videos, the most recent on Christmas Day depicting Bergdahl, in combat uniform, saying Americans should not be fighting in Afghanistan .

KABUL, Dec. 25, 2009

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/12/25/world/main6020890.shtml

Taliban Video Shows Captive U.S. Soldier

Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, 23, of Idaho, Appears to Be In Good Shape; Calls Afghanistan Next Vietnam for U.S.

    • Frame grab of video released by Taliban shows man identifying himself as Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, who was captured in June in eastern Afghanistan.  (AP)

(AP)  The Taliban released a video Friday showing a U.S. soldier who was captured more than five months ago in eastern Afghanistan.

Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl is the only known American serviceman in captivity. The U.S. airborne infantryman was taken by the Afghan Taliban in Paktika province on June 30.

"This is a horrible act which exploits a young soldier, who was clearly compelled to read a prepared statement," said a statement from U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Gregory Smith, spokesman for the NATO-led international force in Afghanistan that confirmed the man in the video is Bergdahl. "To release this video on Christmas Day is an affront to the deeply concerned family and friends of Bowe Bergdahl, demonstrating contempt for religious traditions and the teachings of Islam."

Bergdahl is shown seated, facing the camera, wearing sunglasses and what appears to be a U.S. military helmet and uniform. On one side of the image, it says: "An American soldier imprisoned by the Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan."

                                                                  Watch CBS News Videos Online

The man identifies himself as Bergdahl, born in Sun Valley, Idaho, and gives his rank, birth date, blood type, his unit and mother's maiden name before beginning a lengthy verbal attack on the U.S. conduct of the war in Afghanistan and its relations with Muslims. He seems healthy and doesn't appear to have been abused.

The video, which has an English-language narration in parts, also shows images of prisoners in U.S. custody being abused. The speaker says he did not suffer such ill treatment.

A statement read by a Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, appears at the end of the video and renews demands for a "limited number of prisoners" to be exchanged for Bergdahl. The statement says that more American troops could be captured.

The Geneva Conventions, which regulate the conduct of war between regular armies, bar the use of detainees for propaganda purposes and prohibit signatories from putting captured military personnel on display. As an insurgent organization, the Taliban are not party to the treaty.

Statements from captives are typically viewed as being made under duress. The insurgents also released a video of Bergdahl a few weeks after he was captured. In the July 19 video, Bergdahl appeared downcast and frightened.

Bergdahl, who was serving with a unit based in Fort Richardson, Alaska, was 23 when he vanished just five months after arriving in Afghanistan. He was serving at a base in Paktika province near the border with Pakistan in an area known to be a Taliban stronghold. On Friday, NATO said a joint Afghan-international force killed several militants in Paktika while searching for a commander of the Jalaluddin Haqqani militant network that is linked to al Qaeda.

U.S. military officials have searched for Bergdahl, but it is not publicly known whether he is even being held in Afghanistan or neighboring Pakistan.

Lt. Col. Tim Marsano, an Idaho National Guard spokesman who has been serving as a liaison between the family and media, said late Thursday night that the family had not seen the video since word of its possible release surfaced earlier this month. He spoke with Bob and Jani Bergdahl, Bowe Bergdahl's parents, earlier this week and described their mood as "anxiously awaiting" any new information about their son.

"They're very hopeful that the message will be a positive one, as far as their son's health and welfare," Marsano said.

Marsano said the family still wasn't speaking publicly about Bergdahl's capture.

The man on the video said U.S. officials keep leading America "into the same holes," citing Vietnam, Japan, Germany, Somalia, Lebanon and Iraq.

"This is just going to be the next Vietnam unless the American people stand up and stop all this nonsense," he said.

Terror Monitor: Tape of Captured US Soldier Due
Terrorism tracking group: Taliban to release new video of US soldier captured in Afghanistan


By DEB RIECHMANN Associated Press Writer
KABUL December 16, 2009 (AP)


The Taliban have announced they will release a new video of a U.S. soldier captured in Afghanistan , a U.S.-based terrorism monitoring group said Wednesday.


SITE Intelligence Group, a U.S.-based terrorist tracking organization, said the media arm of the Afghan Taliban made the announcement Wednesday on their Web site.


The video is said to be titled, "One of Their People Testified." The Taliban did not name the American.

The only U.S. soldier known to be in captivity is Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl of Hailey , Idaho , who disappeared more than five months ago in Afghanistan .

Bergdahl, 23, was captured June 30 in the eastern province of Paktika province near the Pakistan border. His Taliban captors released a propaganda video of him about two weeks later. In the July 19 video, Bergdahl appeared downcast and frightened. No subsequent videos have been released.


U.S.
military officials have searched for Bergdahl, but it is not publicly known whether he is even being held in Afghanistan or neighboring Pakistan .

A spokesman for the Idaho National Guard, Lt. Col. Tim Marsano, confirmed he notified the parents about the video this morning after learning about it through news reports.


"They're standing by waiting to see what happens just like everybody else," Marsano said.

He said nothing has changed in the parents' approach with media, preferring to maintain their privacy rather than talk about their son's capture.

"It's been a difficult time for them and their family," he said.


Blaine County Sheriff Walt Femling said he talked to the trooper's mother, Jani Bergdahl, this morning: "I talked to Jani. They're kind of anxiously wanting to get some kind of information at this point."


Pakistan
is off-limits to the thousands of U.S. forces based in Afghanistan . When militants captured a reporter for The New York Times in a dangerous region of Afghanistan last year, he was transported to Pakistan and held for months there. The reporter, David Rohde, eventually escaped.

http://www.kmvt.com/news/local/52804857.html

Town Shows Support For Soldier

By Brittany Cooper

Since word got out that private first class Bowe Bergdahl was captured by the Taliban - the number of people supporting him and his family grew tremendously.
And today Bowe's family saw that support firsthand in Hailey.

One by one they rode the path towards hope otherwise known as Highway 75.
The Pocatello POW MIA awareness rally association started the run in eastern Idaho gathering supporters along the way.
Their destination?
Zaney's river street coffee house in Hailey where Bowe previously worked before enlisting in the army.
And fittingly enough - Bowe's father Bob - mother Jani and girlfriend Monica were there to greet them.

Monica said, "Obviously Bowe liked motorcycles, it was his thing. And I mean, if he knew about this, it would mean so much. He honestly wouldn't believe everyone would be here."

Bowe's family and girlfriend were greatly comforted by the amount of supporters that came up to Hailey to be with them during this difficult time.

Bowe’s father said, "I'd just ask everyone to keep our service people in our thoughts and prayers as this continues."
Monica says that they've received hundreds of emails and letters from supporters. And the support continued today as riders shared their thoughts with the family and were there to stand with Bowe as well.

Director of POW MIA Tim Cowden said, "As a POW you don't know what's going on, you're afraid, you're scared, you don't know what your family is thinking. It good to know there are people back home supporting you ... it's an amazing feeling."

ABC News Blotter Alerts Mon., July 20, 2009
Now on the Blotter
July 20, 2009

Exclusive: Missing U.S. Soldier May Be in Pakistan

Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl Kidnapped by Taliban in Afghanistan


The U.S. soldier kidnapped by Taliban forces in Afghanistan may have been taken across the border to Pakistan, complicating efforts to obtain his release, according to two people involved in U.S. and Afghan military efforts to locate him, and three Afghan soldiers captured with him.

The soldier, Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl, 23, of Idaho, is the first serviceman captured since the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. According to a person actively involved in the search, a top Afghan insurgent commander has taken credit for capturing the soldier and has now moved the soldier to South Waziristan, Pakistan. U.S. armed forces are not permitted to operate inside Pakistan except under extreme circumstances.

Click here to read the full story.

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 526-09

July 19, 2009

DoD Identifies Operation Enduring Freedom Soldier

The Department of Defense announced today the identity of a soldier listed as Missing-Captured on July 3 while supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl, 23, of Ketchum, Idaho, was declared Duty Status Whereabouts Unknown (DUSTWUN) on July 1 and his status was changed to "Missing-Captured" on July 3.

Pfc. Bergdahl is a member of 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Fort Richardson, Alaska.

AP sources: Taliban video shows captive US soldier

 
AP – This video frame grab taken from a Taliban propaganda video released Saturday, July 18, 2009 shows an …

By PAMELA HESS and LOLITA BALDOR, Associated Press Writers Pamela Hess And Lolita Baldor, Associated Press Writers – 43 mins ago

WASHINGTON – The American soldier who went missing June 30 from his base in eastern Afghanistan and was later confirmed to have been captured, appeared on a video posted Saturday to a Web site by the Taliban, two U.S. defense officials said.

The soldier is shown in the 28-minute video with his head shaved and the start of a beard. He is sitting and dressed in a nondescript, gray outfit. Early in the video one of his captors holds the soldier's dog tag up to the camera. His name and ID number are clearly visible. He is shown eating at one point and sitting on a bed.

The soldier, whose identity has not yet been released by the Pentagon pending notification of members of Congress and the soldier's family, says his name, age and hometown on the video, which was released Saturday on a Web site pointed out by the Taliban. Two U.S. defense officials confirmed to The Associated Press that the man in the video is the captured soldier.

The soldier said the date is July 14. He says he was captured when he lagged behind on a patrol.

He is interviewed in English by his captors, and he is asked his views on the war, which he calls extremely hard, his desire to learn more about Islam and the morale of American soldiers, which he said was low.

Asked how he was doing, the soldier said on the video:

"Well I'm scared, scared I won't be able to go home. It is very unnerving to be a prisoner."

He begins to answer questions in a matter-of-fact and sober voice, occasionally facing the camera, looking down and sometimes looking to the questioner on his left.

He later chokes up when discussing his family and his hope to marry his girlfriend.

"I have my girlfriend, who is hoping to marry," he said. "I have a very, very good family that I love back home in America. And I miss them every day when I'm gone. I miss them and I'm afraid that I might not ever see them again and that I'll never be able to tell them that I love them again and I'll never be able to hug them."

He is also prompted his interrogators to give a message to the American people.

"To my fellow Americans who have loved ones over here, who know what it's like to miss them, you have the power to make our government bring them home," he said. "Please, please bring us home so that we can be back where we belong and not over here, wasting our time and our lives and our precious life that we could be using back in our own country. Please bring us home. It is America and American people who have that power."

The video is not a continuous recording ­ it appears to stop and start during the questioning.

It is unclear from the video whether the July 14 date is authentic. The soldier says that he heard that a Chinook helicopter carrying 37 NATO troops had been shot down over Helmand. A helicopter was shot down in southern Afghanistan on July 14, but it was carrying civilians on a reported humanitarian mission for NATO forces. All six Ukrainian passengers died in the crash, and a child on the ground was killed.

On July 2, the U.S. military said an American soldier had disappeared after walking off his base in eastern Afghanistan with three Afghan counterparts and was believed to have been taken prisoner. A U.S. defense official said the soldier was noticed missing during a routine check of the unit on June 30 and was first listed as "duty status whereabouts unknown."

Details of such incidents are routinely held very tightly by the military as it works to retrieve a missing or captured soldier without giving away any information to captors.

But Afghan Police Gen. Nabi Mullakheil said the soldier went missing in eastern Paktika province near the border with Pakistan from an American base. The region is known to be Taliban-infested.

The most important insurgent group operating in that area is known as Haqqani network and is led by warlord Siraj Haqqani, whom the U.S. has accused of masterminding beheadings and suicide bombings including the July 2008 attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul that killed some 60 people. The Haqqani group also was linked to an assassination attempt on Afghan president Hamid Karzai early last year.

On Saturday, a U.S. military official in Kabul, Col. Greg Julian, said the U.S. was "still doing everything we can to return him safely."

Julian said U.S. troops had distributed two flyers in the area where the soldier disappeared. One of them asked for information on the missing soldier and offered a $25,000 reward for his return. The other said "please return our soldier safely" or "we will hunt you," according to Julian.

___

Associated Press writers Robert H. Reid in Kabul and Christine Simmons in Washington contributed to this report.

================================

U.S. : American Soldier Captured in Afghanistan

By Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Debbi Wilgoren

Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, July 2, 2009; 7:22 AM

CAMP LEATHERNECK , Afghanistan, July 2 -- A U.S. soldier missing from his base in eastern Afghanistan since Tuesday is believed to have been captured by Taliban militants, the military said Thursday.

In a statement issued from U.S. military headquarters in Kabul , officials said "we are exhausting all available resources to ascertain his whereabouts and provide for his safe return."

Military officials in Afghanistan , speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the situation, said the soldier appears to have walked off his base into an unsecured area. It was not clear why he had apparently done so.

Agence-France Press reported that a commander of the Taliban's hard-line Haqqani faction claimed Thursday that his militia had captured the soldier, along with his three Afghan guards, in the Yousuf Khail district of Paktika province. That report could not be independently confirmed.

The soldier was not part of the large-scale assault launched on Taliban forces in southern Afghanistan early Thursday. That operation, which involves about 4,000 troops from the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, was encountering only light resistance, officials said. But the military expects the Taliban to respond more harshly once troops move into towns and began patrols.

The military said it would not provide additional information about the missing soldier, because it feared that doing do could place him in further jeopardy.

Wilgoren reported from Washington  

============================================================================

Report: Missing U.S. soldier sold to clan

  KABUL , Afghanistan , July 2 (UPI) -- A missing U.S. soldier thought to have been captured in southeastern Afghanistan has been sold to a militant clan, a U.S. military official said Thursday.

The unidentified senior military official told CNN the soldier, whose name was not released, was captured along with three Afghan soldiers and then sold to a militant group led by warlord Siraj Haqqani.

The official added Haqqani clan officials are discussing ways to legitimize taking custody of the U.S. soldier.

The soldier went missing Tuesday after reportedly leaving his small outpost alone and apparently unarmed.

Taliban commander Mulvi Sangeen said later the soldier was captured along with three Afghan troops by Taliban forces.

Sangeen claimed the soldier was apprehended while drunk following a visit to a military post in the Yousaf Khel district. CNN said an anonymous U.S. military source has denied the soldier was intoxicated while Sangeen's account of events has gone unverified.